[This is the fifteenth post about the Blessed Hope–the return of Jesus Christ (Famine)]

Thankfully, our bodies reward us when we try to eat healthy.

Well-being flows through us after we savor a satisfying meal–like eating robust vegetables and chicken in a aromatic stew. We are filled with buoyant energy and glowing vitality.

The opposite is true when we’re undernourished. It’s draining and debilitating.

When Jesus taught about the signs of His Second Coming, He said that famines would take place in different places of the world.

A crisis of hunger ensues when adequate, nutritious food is not available. Famine is a painful, heart-rending march toward death.

I read with admiration stories about the Great Depression of the 1930’s, when families did whatever they could to make their food stretch. Watered-down milk filled more glasses. Cornmeal or bread were mixed into casseroles. Beans stood in for meat. Ritz crackers were disguised as apples in recipes like Mock Apple Pie.

Depression-era food reminds me of the fish sticks I ate in my grade-school cafeteria. Eating the same food over and over eventually didn’t satisfy.

But there is another type of hunger mentioned in the Bible. It is the famine spoken of by the prophet, Amos.

“‘Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God,

‘That I will send a famine on the land,

Not a famine of bread

Nor a thirst for water,

But of hearing the words of the Lord.’” (Amos 8:11, nkjv)

Along with the physical catastrophe of famine, is there now a spiritual famine taking place?

The inner man hungers when Bible verses are watered down. We grow weary when witty anecdotes are substituted for sound teaching or new philosophies stand in for revealed truth. A philanthropic deed is disguised as repentance and obedience.

We’re tricked into eating Spam, when we’ve been promised roast beef.

In a food crisis, people wander from place to place looking for a morsel of bread. Is it any different spiritually, when people move from church to church, change denominations, or completely overhaul their beliefs because they are spiritually starving?

People are feeling drained and debilitated. Spiritual emptiness is painful. It is a heart-rending march toward numbness and death.

In days of spiritual famine, we can take comfort in the rich sustenance of God’s Word.

Meditating on the words of the Bible is like sitting down to a bountiful feast. Even if we’re not being served, we can always help ourselves.